The Importance of Mindfulness for Preschool Parents

You have probably heard of mindfulness by now, but are you aware of the benefits of mindfulness for preschool parents?

Though an old concept, dating back thousands of years to ancient Buddhist practices, there has been a huge rise in interest in mindfulness in the press and popular culture in recent years.

Mindfulness is often confused with meditation. The practices are related, but not the same.

Mindfulness can help people of all walks of life, including parents. Let’s look at how.

So what is mindfulness?

Mindfulness, according to the American Psychological Association, is

“…a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.”

Mindfulness has been shown to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, while helping to encourage positive emotions and improve quality of life.

These benefits are relevant to parenting, too.

Mindfulness and parenting

The fact that mindfulness reduces stress, anxiety, and depression is a good enough reason for it to benefit parenting. Stress and depression are strongly linked to negative parenting, while children whose parents have mood or anxiety disorders are more likely to suffer from them themselves.

But that’s not all. The practices of mindfulness, such as acting with awareness, observing, and non-judging of inner experiences, each have their benefits to the way you interact with your child.

Acting with awareness, meaning being fully attentive and conscious of the experiences in the present moment, is essential to good parenting. That’s because if you are truly present in the moment when interacting with your child, you can better emotionally connect with them and respond more effectively to their needs.

Observing, meanwhile, allows you to recognise your own thoughts and feelings, improving emotional intelligence and enabling you to empathise as a parent.

Non-judging is the acceptance of thoughts and feelings and teaches parents acceptance of their mistakes and their child as a human being.

Mindfulness at the Preschool stage

Mindfulness in parenting benefits children of all ages, but is particularly relevant during the preschool stage.

Dealing with tantrums requires patience and understand.

At this stage, frustration and displeasure in children often lead to bursts of emotion in the shape of temper tantrums – as preschool parents are all too aware! And as kids learn to socialise, they must learn that they cannot get what they want all of the time.

Mindfulness can help parents deal with these conflicts by reducing their stress, allowing them to respond more calmly to tantrums, and by being a better example to children of how to manage emotions.

Slowing things down

Sometimes, with the day-to-day management of running a family, parents just feel too busy to be fully attentive to their kids’ needs. That’s a problem.

Being a mindful parent often means slowing things down. Take a breath, and listen to what your child is trying to tell you through their behaviour! This is particularly important for parents of children with behavioural issues.

Be in the moment.

Meanwhile, stress can be detrimental to family life. As well as impacting relationships between parents, children pick up on stress; they notice it and they feel it. And in fact, studies show that parental stress is a larger source of stress in kids than schoolwork or peer pressure.

Mindfulness can help mums and dads manage their stress, benefiting the whole family.  For more great tips on mindfulness techniques that you can use right away, check out this article from the INLP centre.

Thanks for reading about mindfulness for preschool parents! Have you practised mindfulness before? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments!

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Benefits of Mindfulness for Parenting in Mothers of Preschoolers in Chile

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